A common measure of memory monitoring--judgments of learning (JOLs)--has recently been shown to have reactive effects on learning. When participants study a list of related and unrelated word pairs, they recall more related than unrelated pairs. This relatedness effect is larger when people make JOLs than when they do not make them. Evidence is mixed concerning whether this increased relatedness effect arises because JOLs help memory for related pairs, hurt it for unrelated pairs, or do both. In three experiments, we investigated (1) the nature of the increased relatedness effect (i.e., does it arise from positive reactivity for related pairs, negative reactivity for unrelated pairs, or both?) and (2) the mechanisms underlying the effect. Participants studied cue-target word pairs and either did (or did not) make immediate JOLs and then completed a cued-recall test. When participants studied a mixed list consisting of related and unrelated pairs, the increased relatedness effect was largely driven by positive reactivity. When participants studied pure lists consisting solely of related or unrelated word pairs (Experiment 2 only), the increased relatedness effect was minimized. These and other findings suggest that making JOLs helps learning more than hurts it, and that this reactive effect partly occurs because making JOLs changes people's learning goals.

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Objective. To provide a user's guide on measuring metacognition in authentic contexts so that educators and researchers can explore students' metacognition with an aim towards improving their students' metacognitive processes and achievement. Findings. Metacognition can be measured in a variety of ways depending on whether the interest is knowledge, monitoring, or control. These methods include surveys, assessment of student predictions versus their performance on examinations, or investigating students' decisions during their learning process. Summary. Metacognition refers to people's knowledge about and regulation of their cognitive processes. These aspects of metacognition are important for supporting students' success in academic and experiential settings. In particular, students who recognize successful learning strategies can accurately monitor their own progress and make effective study decisions that are more likely to help them meet their learning goals. Thus, measuring metacognitive knowledge, monitoring, and control can help educators identify struggling students who may benefit from interventions to improve their metacognitive processes.

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